The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ("HUD") has an excellent online glossary of Mortgage Terms here:

http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/buying/glossary.cfm

There are other excellent resources on the internet to bring yourself up to speed on the latest mortgage loan products and terms (two are listed below).

However, with any free informational website there will always be a solicitation to get your contact information to be resold as a "sales lead" to anyone who will pay for it. The mortgage industry is no different.

This opens you up to annoying phone calls at home by pushy tele-sales reps who lack the knowledge to answer your questions. This may also make you vulnerable to the oldest sales trick in the book- the "bait and switch" tactic. The bait comes in the form of a great rate, until you're closing date is near and they switch you to a really bad one due to some unforseen circumstances.

Before you know it, your original documents are in their possession, you've paid them $500 in up front fees, you're closing date is fast approaching and you still don't have a Rate Lock agreement. You can probably guess how this story ends. It happens to thousands of "sheeple" every year.

We recommend the following sites for informational purposes only and cannot affirm or endorse any of the advertisers or products being marketed on them:

www.bankrate.com
The industry standard site for the latest on bank rates from bonds to loans.

www.myfico.com
The industry standard credit score and recommended by eRateLock.com for purchasing your tri-merged credit report.